"What's The Most Ingredient For Success?"

One of my
favorite questions to ask new car sales trainees is, "What do you think
the most important ingredient is for you to be successful in this
business?" They answer with things like being persistent, being a hard
worker, knowing the product, learning how to sell, and being a good closer.

Sure, those are
all good answers, but it's not the most important ingredient to be successful
as a car sales consultant. I would venture to say that this one profound
ingredient is not only the most important ingredient in auto sales to cultivate,
but I’d be willing to bet it’s the most important ingredient to possess in any
business or any endeavor for that matter.

Attitude: The Most Important Ingredient

So what’s this
oh so important ingredient? It’s called attitude. And there is no question in
my mind that, “Your attitude will determine your altitude.” Now it will
determine your altitude either in an accelerated fashion or a decelerated fashion
depending on if it’s a good or bad attitude. If your attitude is good you’ll
get good results. If your attitude is bad, you’ll get bad results. But if your attitude is exceptional, you'll get exceptional results it's that simple.

Look at anyone that’s
achieved a level of success. What kind of attitude do they possess? My guess is
that their attitude is probably exceptional. If you’re in a sales environment
you must have an outstanding attitude if you want to make sales.

If you’re
currently in the market for a job, you must maintain a positive attitude to
have any chance of finding the right job. Given a choice of two employees, one with
an exceptional attitude, but little or no experience versus one with experience
and a mediocre attitude, I’ll take the less experienced with the good
attitude.

Attitude all
boils down to thinking, expatiations, and ultimately reactions to events. It’s
your internal processing system coming out in your physical external mannerisms
in the way you speak, feel and act. It’s your posture, your body language, and
your tone of voice.

The 5 Reasons Your Attitude Will Determine Your Altitude

So what are the
5 reasons for your attitude will determine your altitude? Well here we go:

1.
The better the attitude, the better your results. If you have a
bad attitude, you’re sure to get bad results. If you have a good attitude you’ll
get good results. But if you have an outstanding attitude you’ll get
outstanding results.

2.
With the right attitude you literally can achieve anything that
you set your mind to achieve. If you think you can, you can; and with the right
attitude you will.

3.
Your failures and setbacks will be looked at as learning experiences.
They will like testing different approaches, and you’ll learn from the
experiences to make the proper adjustments with a superior attitude.

4.
With the right attitude you’ll attract better circumstances into
your life. Have you ever noticed that people with the best attitudes attract
the best situations into their life? That’s not luck, that’s the way the
universe works plain and simple.

5.
You physical being in made up from a big portion of your attitude.
If you’re not at the weight you’d like to be at, I’ll bet your attitude isn't at the level it needs to be at in order to lose the weight.

“How Do You Get More Of A Better Attitude?”

I could
probably add a few more, but I think you should get my point. “Attitude is
Everything.” So here’s my next question: “If attitude is such an important
ingredient, how can you manufacture more of it in a positive way?”

When I ask
this question to my trainees I hear answers like, I’ll think more positive. I
won’t let things get me down. I’ll use positive self talk. I’ll look in the
mirror and tell myself positive affirmations.

Again, all good
answers and they might work to some extent if you practice them on a daily
basis. I think the key word there is “Practice.” If you want a better attitude,
you have to find a strategy that will work for you. But it’s something that you
have to commit to on a daily basis. It boils down to work, and most people don’t
like to work.

Here’s my two
cent philosophy on how to have a superior attitude and an exceptional state of
mind. Spend 30 minutes a day for the rest of your life reading something that
will expand your mind in a positive way. But don’t just read to read. Read and
apply the “Attitudes” of what you’re reading.

Turn your mind
into a sponge by reading good, healthy, positive literature. Only read non fictional
books. Books that will expand your mind into new dimensions. One of my favorite
all time quotes is by a guy named Oliver Wendell Holmes. He said, “A mind stretched
by a new idea can never return to its original dimensions.”

When you’re
driving to and from work, turn your car into a learning library. Don’t listen
to music, listen to positive inspiration speakers. If your commute is 30
minutes each day, you’ll be amazed at what you can learn in a short period of
time. It took me about a year, but I memorized about 500 vocabulary words just
by listening to them in my car.

“Conclusion”

Your attitude
is the most important ingredient you can cultivate in your life. If your
attitude isn’t where you want it, then make a decision to improve it little by
little. Turn the TV off and start reading positive, inspirational books. Turn
your car into a rolling class room by listening to nothing but information that
will expand your mind into new dimensions. By placing your focus on improving
your attitude by pumping good positive, inspirational information into your
mind, it won’t be long before your attitude will take you to new altitudes.

More by this Author

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to drive an 18
wheeler? You know, those big rigs that roll down the road with their turbo
diesel engines whistling like a sparrow at day break. Most of the time you have
no idea...

If your goal is to make $100,000 a year, that means your salary needs to be exactly $8,333.33 a month for 12 months. If you're getting paid by the hour that means you need to get paid an hourly rate of $48.08 based on a...

Comments 3 comments

Thanks for posting this Hub. It's so true that people with the best attitudes get the most out of life. This Hub has some great advice in it so people can improve their attitudes.

sklein 5 years ago from Atlanta, Ga Author

Thanks for the comment Jeff. It took me about 52 years to figure it out myself. Hopefully this can speed up the process for some of the unknowing out there that never gave it a second thought about how important "Attitude" is in their life.

cygnetbrown 4 years ago from Alton, Missouri

You are right. No one wants to hire someone who is down all the time. It isn't good for business when people are complaining all the time. It also isn't good for individual performance either.